Los Angeles Police Department Names American Military University a Preferred School

American Military University (AMU) announces that the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has designated it a “preferred school” for department personnel who want to further their educations and advance their careers.

AMU is a member institution of the American Public University System (APUS), an accredited, online university system serving more than 70,000 working adults studying worldwide. APUS offers 76 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in an affordable and flexible format.

The LAPD designation follows a similar agreement between AMU and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) last year, which made AMU a member of the LASD University—a consortium of colleges and universities whose mission is to provide LASD employees with a variety of accessible learning programs.

“Ongoing professional development and education is important in any field, but it is essential in law enforcement,” said Rashall Sanchez, Training Officer in the LAPD’s Career Development Unit. “At the LAPD, we know that ensuring access to high-quality and relevant degree programs like AMU’s will help the Department further develop our leadership corps, keep our officers safer, and be highly regarded by the public we serve.”

The LAPD agreement, recently signed by Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, gives AMU a regular presence at the LAPD Training Academy and allows AMU to be in direct contact with administrators, managers, and officers seeking to learn about or enroll in one of the university’s many undergraduate or graduate degree programs. The agreement also calls for AMU to evaluate the programs of the LAPD Training Academy to determine if some of its programs would qualify for transfer credit, which would allow Los Angeles cadets and police officers to apply some of their professional development and on-the-job training toward AMU degree programs.

AMU Law Enforcement Education Coordinator Bettina Aschenbrenner, a retired LASD sergeant and detective who, like several of her colleagues, moved from active duty to introduce educational opportunities to LAPD personnel, said, “AMU is proud to be partnering with the two largest law enforcement agencies in Southern California to provide career-advancing, higher education opportunities to those who serve and protect us here every day.”

The Johns Creek, Georgia, Police Department was awarded a Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) accreditation this summer, becoming the first law enforcement agency in the United States to receive the important recognition within two years of its founding.

“In my more than 40 years of public service, I have never seen a new agency achieve such an accomplishment,” said Maryland Senator James Robey, a member of CALEA. “It is truly remarkable and outstanding.”

Established in 2008, the Johns Creek Police Department designed its own agency policies and practices based on CALEA’s demanding professional standards.

“Our goal from the beginning was to be a CALEA-accredited agency,” said Johns Creek Police Department (JCPD) Chief Ed Densmore. “It’s the benchmark in professional law enforcement management and service delivery, and that’s what we wanted to provide the Johns Creek community. I’m more than proud and appreciative of my officers and staff who have worked so hard to make this happen.”

Chief Densmore and Johns Creek City Manager John Kachmar accepted the accreditation at an award ceremony in Las Vegas, Nevada, during CALEA’s summer conference attended by more than 500 representatives from law enforcement and public safety agencies across the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

“Johns Creek has truly set the bar for the industry standard,” said CALEA Commissioner Gary Margolis on presenting the award. “The accomplishment of the JCPD to achieve this level of professionalism in such a short time is truly amazing, and one I’ve never seen before as a commissioner.”

Becoming accredited is an arduous process. A total of 418 standards have to be met in all areas of law enforcement and public safety service, including operations, management, technical services, and homeland security/critical incident.

Over the last year, a team of CALEA assessors conducted on-site reviews of the Johns Creek Police Department’s policies, practices, and procedures; interviewed police staff and city leaders; and conducted open hearings to learn the public’s perception of the department.

After five years of product development, testing, and successful beta-site review, Hufcor introduces FlexTact, a new, moveable wall system specifically designed for law enforcement and military tactical training. FlexTact walls hang from overhead track grids and can be reconfigured to create ever-changing scenarious for training SWAT, active shooter, and Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain (MOUT) exercises in a nonlethal simunitions or compressed-air ballistics training environment.

“Our FlexTact system far exceeded our expectations,” said Matthew Enyeart, lieutenant, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Police Department, and director of training at the Regional Training Academy in northwest Indiana. “We’ve been able to train as many as four different scenarios in a day.”

FlexTact was designed for the rigors of law enforcement training with features developed for the specific requirements of certified trainers. Installed and tested by SWAT and high-liability trainers at Public Safety Academy of Northeast Indiana and Indian River State College in Fort Pierce, Florida, prior to the 2009 launch, FlexTact creates three-dimensional room layouts so multiple training scenarios can be offered in one space. The FlexTact panels can be easily converted to new room layouts—classrooms converted to hotel rooms, then converted to an office space, then converted to a residential layout—complete with pass doors and windows. Officers also can create hallways with multiple entrances, small restrooms, or closets, all to help train proper room clearing and search-and-rescue methods.

“Simulators are good for new recruits, but the FlexTact wall systems allow all facts of a training to be incorporated into our exercises for new and experienced personnel,” said Luis Gomez, high-liability director at Indian River State College in Fort Pierce, Florida. “Two-dimensional training on a video or projection screen tires after a while, but the FlexTact reconfigurability creates a new, three-dimensional environment each and every exercise. Trainees must be aware of all of their surroundings—not just what’s on a video screen.”

L-1 Identity Solutions—Secure Credentialing Division, a provider of secure credentialing solutions including driver’s licenses for 44 states, has been selected to provide a secure standardized identification (ID) card for all local law enforcement officers in Massachusetts.

Currently, police departments issue a unique ID card with few if any security features. Because of the number of IDs in circulation, the public and other officers have little idea of what a legitimate police ID looks like, causing confusion and increasing the likelihood of counterfeit police IDs. With this solution, each department will utilize a web enrollment process. The cards will be printed in a central facility and shipped to each police chief for internal distribution, ensuring complete control of the issuance process.

ID card benefits include a common look and feel and security features similar to those on the Massachusetts driver’s license. The cards will contain barcodes for accessing secure areas and be customized for each department with, for example, the jurisdiction name, the department’s patch, the chief’s name, and the agency address.

The credentials will be used for identification purposes in law enforcement public outreach, mutual aid exercises, firearm transportation in commercial aviation, carrying firearms into courthouses and other public buildings, and access to secure facilities.

“For the first time, the people of Massachusetts will have the ability to determine when they look at a police officer’s identification that they are talking to an authentic law enforcement officer and not an imposter,” said Bill Brooks, deputy chief, Wellesley, Massachusetts, Police Department.

The Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association is planning a public outreach campaign to educate the public on what a legitimate police ID will look like. ■

From The Police Chief, vol. LXXVII, no. 12, December 2010. Copyright held by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, 515 North Washington Street, Alexandria, VA 22314 USA.

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